Greek sports federations will receive state funding of 25 million euros for 2013, a 30 percent reduction from last year, the country's Sports Undersecretary Giannis Ioannidis said Wednesday.
He told a press conference that originally the state was to offer only 14 million euros for this year but that Prime Minister Antonis Samaras had approved a further increase.
"We talked about the tragic reductions for the federations that reached 60 to 70 percent. Eventually the cuts will be about 30 percent and we thank the prime minister for providing this extra assistance for the sports movement," Ioannidis said.
He said that from now on federations "that show development" would be funded.
"We cannot give money to 5,000 teams but to 300 or 400 that show development," Ioannidis said.
"We must take into account the work done by each federation, how clean they are, the success of their athletes, their history, etc. The federations should be based on meritocracy."
The financial crisis in the country has led to the General Secretariat of Sports making drastic cuts in subsidies to the sports federations.
A general view of the Olympic stadium in Athens on September 29, 2011. Greek sports federations will receive state funding of 25 million euros for 2013, a 30 percent reduction from last year, the country's Sports Undersecretary Giannis Ioannidis said Wednesday.
